Theme: Values – More Than the Sum of its Parts?

Values: How can this term can be ascribed to the subject of the motor car, and how much do I place upon my own vehicle?

Image: Driven to Write

Most of the time our cars are simply a tool, taken for granted and unconsidered unless we deign to clean them or the blasted thing refuses to start. There are currently two cars in my life. A 2013 Jaguar XF, (which isn’t in fact mine) and a 1996 Saab 900S, which is. The Jag was purchased about six months into its life, and is a low mileage, fairly cosseted luxury consumer durable. The Saab was purchased in 2014 with about 110,000 miles on its odometer, but with every stamp present in its service book. It’s still in remarkable condition despite not being cosseted at all. The XF cost its owner something in the region of quite a lot of money, while the Saab – well, lets just say my road bike was more expensive.

But that’s just one subset of the value equation. Others are perhaps more pertinent. The Jaguar is a very pleasant place to spend time and despite its grumbling diesel motor, is an effortless device. Long motorway journeys are its domain, when it simply oozes along consuming the miles with no more effort than engine revolutions. Thanks to the efforts of Mike Cross and his minions, it’s also a car that can be taken by the scruff of its Thomas Pink shirt collar and propelled down a B-road with an incisiveness that still impresses.

The Saab on the other hand is a car that requires a good deal more driver input. It’s engine is sluggish in the low ranges and in order to make decent progress requires frequent use of the gears – a tiresome and imprecise mechanism which elicits no tactile pleasure of any description. Combine this with a heavy and judder-prone clutch – (I’m reliably informed they all do this) – and the 900 can be a ponderous companion. Its occasionally hilarious interpretation of body control and simultaneously knobbly, yet spongy ride quality might suggest the Saab has all the dynamics of a wet spaniel, yet I enjoy driving it within (and occasionally well outside) its occasionally narrow limits.

But when it comes to real-world utility, the boot is however (quite literally) on the other foot. Over the past year, we’ve been through a major house extension which required vast quantities of materials to be transported – a task for which the limitations of the three volume saloon are ruthlessly exposed. Here the XF was hopeless, its boot being comparatively small with a desperately narrow aperture and worst of all, the rear seat is fixed. (Apparently folding rear seats are an extra-cost option). No, the Jaguar is far too much of a princess to get her fingernails dirty. Throughout the duration of the build, the Saab was pressed into service as carthorse and dumptruck, swallowing vast quantities of rubbish and building materials within its commodious rear deck without a murmur of protest. And now that we’ve turned our attention to the exterior, it’s once again proving its worth transporting soil, plants and various garden-of-Versailles accoutrements, while the XF, in Lady Chatterley fashion, idly admires herself in her hand mirror.

I have been known to find traumatised potholers in here from time to time. Image: The author

The Saab’s uncanny ability to swallow loads however, did have one significant downside about 18-months ago. En-route to the car ferry in Wales, laden to the gunwales as usual, I hit some road debris on the M4 motorway, suffering a rear tyre blowout. The ridiculously tiny spare is nestled in the bootfloor, thus entailing full decantation of luggage and personal effects on the hard shoulder while massive camions pelted by. Terrifying, but this remains the only breakdown I’ve suffered. While making regular journeys back and forth to Ireland, the otherwise metronomic dependability of the 900 has morphed fond regard into firm attachment, more so perhaps than other, more emotive cars I’ve owned in the past.

Which brings me back to the concept of Values. Is it not the case that a car’s true value lies in the places it’s taken you and the events you’ve shared, less than monetary or aesthetic worth? If the Jag was sold tomorrow, it would still fetch a decent proportion of its purchase price – less depreciation. It would however be quickly forgotten – just as its predecessor has been. The Saab on the other hand has either plateaued in its deprecatory trajectory or is virtually worthless, depending on how you view it. The simple truth is that in monetary terms, it’s at a point where one sufficiently major component failure will be sufficient to render the car uneconomic to repair. Even without this eventuality, the London mayor’s proposed Ultra Low Emissions Zone could very well seal the Saab’s death warrant. Yet, its loss would be felt keenly.

Image: Driven to Write

Now it goes without saying that this era of 900 wasn’t necessarily Trollhätten’s finest hour, and I would never attempt to disguise the fact. But despite this, the 900 is a car that pleases me and more to the point, one that fits the life I live now. Additionally, everything about it feels as if it will readily last decades. So yes, for these and other more nebulous reasons I’ve come to value the Saab enormously, but even more, I salute the values of practicality and integrity this fine marque once embodied and that General Motors, despite their best efforts never quite expunged.

I like your description of the Jaguar’s disregard for the problems of real world living. This crystallises the reservations I have whenever I consider owning cars like that, I also like your comment about cars fitting the life you live at a particular present. Frankly, I’ve always felt like an imposter with my Citroen, and I feel that my lifestyle probably doesn’t do it justice. There was a time when I had a new Espace, and I felt an imposter with that too. I’m not sure I actually like new cars that much. The rough around the edges Audi I had for five of the last six years probably suited my then mindset just fine. As for my current Cube, somehow that seems fine too, and now far preferable to the Audi. Make of that what you will.

I like big boots, I cannot lie. Yes, for the most part you are paying to haul around a large cubic footage of air, but there is something to be said about doing a tip run without pushing down the rear seats.

I find the styling very pleasing. It was an accomplished re-imagining of the last ‘proper’ 900, which the subsequent 9.3 didn’t improve upon in my opinion, even if it offered a more ‘planted’ driving experience.

It also is one of those car designs I believe works better in 3-door form.

There is just shy of 127,000 miles on the Saab’s odometer now, so to answer your question Chris, not all that much really. To be honest, apart from the occasional long trip, it does a pretty nominal mileage.

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Driven To Write was founded by three like-minded writers frustrated with the polarised motoring journalism on offer. Our aim has been to publish the kind of diverse and original content no-one else appears interested in producing. Off-message, idiosyncratic, quixotic or sometimes just daft, while we sometimes tip our hat to the daily spin of the news cycle, as soon as the tub stops rotating we march unapologetically on to a different drumbeat - even if it's one that only we can hear …

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